Covering the Strib's Teamster-related pension issues, I've referenced the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., which backstops benefits when private plans fail. As companies like the Strib pull out of multi-employer pension funds, the privately funded PBGC faces huge deficits — and perhaps a taxpayer bailout. Should that come to pass, the Strib's obligation would be socialized.

The bad news from today's New York Times is that the PBGC's deficit is indeed mushrooming: from $11 billion in October to a record $33.5 billion. (Just yesterday, the PBGC assumed $128 million from Eden-Prairie-based Lenox Group, which sells Department 56 tsotchkes and other non-essentials.)

The good news, such as it is, is that the PBGC is sitting on $56 billion in assets "and is not facing any prospect of default in the short term," officials contend. The PBGC pays out $4.3 billion a year to pensioners, who get less than companies promised them.

Thankfully, last year the corporation's trustees didn't fully bite on plans to invest more aggressively in the market — one of the big problems at the Teamsters Central States fund.

While the story notes the PBGC has accounted for the collapse of the auto industry, but a Central States collapse would add several billion to the deficit. And even if there are enough assets on hand, the PBGC deficit will have to be made up some day. We can only hope it's through economic growth and shrewd — but not reckless — investing.